As full-time marketers, we sometimes forget that not all of our clients are as familiar with marketing terms as we are. You’re full-time dentists or dental professionals—there’s no reason why you should know what PPC or SEO means. To help you stay on the same page as us, we thought it might be helpful to compile a dictionary of marketing terms we regularly use.
If you ever come across one not mentioned on this list that you’re unfamiliar with, please don’t hesitate to let us know and we will add it!
A/B Test
If we’re running a marketing campaign of any sort, sometimes we will create two different campaigns that contain the same information but might display a different design, different written text, or another different variable. Then, half of the people who see the campaign will see one campaign (A) while the other half sees the other campaign (B). Then, we can determine which campaign performs better. This information comes in handy for future campaigns and for optimizing the campaign budget.
Application Programming Interface (API)
Simply put, an API sends information back and forth between an application and website, or a user. Think of it as a letter. You need to ask someone a question so you send them a letter. They receive the letter and then write a response back. The letter is the API.
Blog
Blog is short for weblog and it’s a dedicated area of your website where we regularly post new and relevant content. Blogs are time-relevant so they always have a date on them. Think of your website as a textbook and your blog as a newspaper. It has new information that’s time-relevant or not included in the textbook.
Bounce Rate
When someone visits your website and leaves without clicking on anything or navigating to another page, this is considered a bounce. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who bounce versus total website visitors. A high bounce rate would mean that the majority of website visitors don’t stick around.
Brand Identity
Your brand identity is the personality traits and characteristics that define your brand off and online. It’s your brand’s message you present to your audience in all aspects of your marketing.
Cache
A web cache is the temporary storage of web pages, images, documents, and other multimedia. When you visit a website for the first time, your browser will take a snapshot of the website so that when you visit it a second time it will load faster. When someone makes updates to your website, the cache doesn’t always refresh so it can cause a distorted look to your website. You can simply clear your browser cache by visiting your browser history and cookie settings. Clearing the cache should fix any visibility issues on your website.
Call-To-Action (CTA)
A call to action is usually a button, text link, or web link that encourages website visitors to take action. The action can be subscribing, add to cart, call, fill out a form, etc.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
The clickthrough rate is the percentage of your audience that clicks through the next step of your marketing campaign. The rate is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks received by the total number of visitors. For instance, if someone visits a landing page on your website and there is one link on the page to learn more and half of your website visitors clicked that link, your CTR would be 50%.
Content
Content is a piece of information that exists for the sole purpose of people engaging or sharing it. It can be a blog, infographic, social media post, video, podcast, slideshow, photo, etc.
Content Management System
A content management system is an easy way to manage, edit, and create a website in one place. For instance, all our websites are made with WordPress. Managing the content on the website is simple enough that not all our employees need to be fluent in HTML. CMSs exist so that non-technical people can easily manage their website content without having to bother a developer.
Conversion Rate
A conversion rate is the percentage of people who complete the desired CTA on a website like scheduling an appointment or filling out a form.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
The cost per lead is how much money you had to spend towards marketing efforts to acquire a lead (a new patient who books an appointment).
CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
CSS is what gives your website its style including fonts, colors, background images, and other visual elements. It’s also responsible for adapting your website to different screens and devices.
Domain Name
A web domain is the name of your website. For instance, our domain name is
You can own domain names just like real estate. You can purchase any available names and even sell existing names you own.
Drip Campaign
A drip campaign is a series of emails sent to a prospective customer that leads them through the buyer’s journey.
Engagement Rate
An engagement rate is the rate of interaction a piece of content receives. This includes likes, reactions, shares, comments, etc.
External Link
A link that directs to a website outside of your own.
Hashtag
A hashtag is a way to categorize content on social media.
Hosting
When you create a website, all of the data behind the design, content, images, etc. need to be stored on a server. Hosting is the service that allocates space for your website on a server.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
HTML is a language used to write website pages. It’s the core of every website regardless of the technology or complexity. HTML provides basic site structure and is enhanced with other languages including JavaScript and CSS.
Inbound Link
An inbound link is a link on another website that leads to your website.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
A KPI is a measurement of performance or activity success. KPIs can include website traffic, Customer Acquisition Cost, blog traffic sources, and more.
Keywords
Keywords are words or topics that your website indexes for in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. When creating your website, a marketing team will optimize your website for certain keywords like “dentist in (your city)” and specific procedures in your city.
Landing Page
A landing page is a page a website visitor lands on as a result of a marketing effort like a pay-per-click campaign. The purpose of the landing page is to encourage the visitor to claim an offer or take an action to convert them from visitor to lead.
Lead
A lead is a person who has shown interest in your business by filling out a form, subscribing to a blog, or sharing their contact information. This is the first step of their buyer’s journey.
Long-Tail Keyword
Long-tail keywords are short phrases that contain three or more words. These keywords can help attract more relevant website traffic to your website. For example, someone in your area might search for “How much do porcelain veneers cost?” and your website will pop up if it’s optimized for this phrase.
Meta Title (Title Tag)
The meta title defines the page of a website. This is generally the title you will see on search engine results.
Meta Description
The meta description is a short blurb that summarizes the page of a website. This is the description that pops up under the title of search engine results.
Microsite
A microsite is a mini website within a website. We also call these “Mini Sites”. These are often one page or several pages that exist outside of the primary website to promote a specific service. An example of a mini-site is the Wisconsin Tongue Tie Center on BKS Dental’s website.
Mockup
A mockup is an example of what a final product will look like. In marketing, it’s usually an example of what a website or graphic design project will look like. Generally, edits will be made to the mockup and approved before developing the actual website page.
Page View
A page view is a single request to view a specific page on the internet.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per click is a marketing service that charges only when a campaign gets clicked on. For example, every time you click on the promoted content on a Google search, the company who created the advertisement gets charged with every click. PPC ads show up for keywords specified by the person setting up the campaign.
QR Code (Quick Response Code)
A QR code is a matrix barcode readable by barcode readers or smartphone camera that essentially acts as a link. QR codes can pull up websites, apps, and more.
Responsive Design
A responsive design is a website design that automatically fixes its appearance based on a user’s screen size or device. Responsive designs ensure that every website visitor will be able to view the website as easily as possible.
Retargeting
Retarget marketing, or retargeting, is a strategy that involves showing marketing campaigns to the same people over and over again. Generally, the retargeting audience is a group of people who have interacted with social media posts in the past or visited your website before.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A return on investment is a performance measure that evaluates the profitability and efficiency of an investment. For instance, the money a new patient brings in divided by the money you spend on marketing. The ratio between the two would be your return on investment.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the practice of enhancing a website to appear in search results. It involves adjusting several elements on a website including content, site speed, links, and much more. SEO is what essentially helps you rank for certain keywords on search engines.
Social Proof
Social proof is the psychological phenomenon that people seek direction from when choosing how they will act in a certain situation like making a purchase. For instance, when a potential patient sees tons of positive online reviews for your dental practice, their trust in your business automatically increases. There are many different forms of social proof including reviews, interactions on social media content, lines outside a door, and much more.
Style Guide
A style guide is a set of style standards for your business. A style guide includes colors, fonts, the tone for written content, logos, formatting, and etc. At Pro Impressions Marketing, we create a brand identity and style guide for each of our clients so all their marketing materials can stay consistent with the style.
Unique Visitor
A unique visitor is an individual who visits your website more than once during a certain period of time. This is different from overall website views because one person might view your website 30 times. That doesn’t mean you had 30 visitors.
URL
A URL is the specific website address for individual website pages. For instance, our contact page is https:///contact/
User Experience (UX)
The experience of a website visitor is considered their user experience. Their experience involves their ability to use your website and whether the website is tailored to solving their problem or needs.
Wireframe
A wireframe is an outline of the information and features that will be on a web page. Its purpose is to keep the project focused and give the graphic designer a clear picture of what they need to include in their mockup design.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file of code that exists on your web server that contains a complete list of relevant URLs that create the structure of your website. In other words, it’s a floorplan of your website. XML Sitemaps are helpful for website redesigns and also play a role in SEO.
Have Other Unfamiliar Marketing Terms?
If you’ve heard other marketing terms you feel unsure of, please do not hesitate to contact us to learn what they mean. As your dental marketing company, we’re here to guide you through the marketing world to help your dental office get the best results possible. Call us at (970) 672-1212 today to learn more.
